{"title":"Paule Constant","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"confidence-pour-confidence-book-paule-constant-9782070413812","title":"Confidence pour confidence","description":"Winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1998, this book is the work of one of France's most celebrated and interesting novelists writing at the height of her powers. It is fiction that leads readers through fascinating chambers of life where autobiography is constantly reimagined. A darkly comic novel about four women aging less-than-gracefully, Trading Secrets takes us to an academic conference in Kansas where, in an encounter between Aurore, a French woman, and her American counterpart, Gloria, the differences between their two cultures become sharply apparent. The result is a bitingly funny portrait of painfully complex, psychologically damaged individuals, all of whom have been, in some sense, colonized. The novel also offers an incisive picture of a French posture toward things American, from race relations to feminism to academia. As Paule Constant herself has said: C'est un livre en miroir. The book is a mirror, both in how its characters reflect one another and in what it shows us of ourselves and our world. Paule Constant is the author of seven novels, including The Governor's Daughter (Nebraska 1998), which was a finalist for the Prix Goncourt in 1994. Betsy Wing's translations include The Governor's Daughter, H l ne Cixous's The Book of Promethea, and Edouard Glissant's The Fourth Century (all available from the University of Nebraska Press). Margot Miller teaches French at the University of Maryland.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49575896350993,"sku":"GOR002488354","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/2070413810.jpg?v=1751432537"},{"product_id":"white-spirit-book-paule-constant-9782070385010","title":"White spirit","description":"After answering a classified ad placed by an import-export company looking for energetic young men willing to take on responsibilities for its African branches-no diploma required-Victor finds himself on The Will of God, a dilapidated boat heading into the heart of darkness as even Conrad couldn't have imagined. With the piquant mixture of hilarity and painful disenchantment characterizing Paule Constant's vision of the colonial novel, White Spirit follows three innocents-Victor; Lola, a mulatto prostitute; and Alexis, who does not know he's a monkey-as they negotiate the perverse system of desires and hatreds on an African banana plantation. Selling what no one wants or needs, Victor takes delivery of a barrel of mysterious powder promptly christened white spirit for its ability to bleach the black arms of the workers handling the shipment. To become whiter and worthier of love, Lola buys some-and then the rest vanishes. In this nightmarish Africa where colonized and colonizers have each other in a stranglehold, the white spirit unleashes an obsession that merges whiteness with a return to paradise-an obsession that can only end in catastrophe. Through it all, with her characteristic caustic language, fierce irony, and enormous tenderness for human frailty, Constant portrays the ridiculous without ridicule-and, miraculously, sparks a light of hope in the midst of the torment and suffering. Paule Constant is the author of several novels, including Trading Secrets, winner of the Prix Goncourt, and The Governor's Daughter, both published by the University of Nebraska Press. Betsy Wing has translated Constant's previous novels published by the University of Nebraska Press, as well as  douard Glissant's The Fourth Century (Nebraska 2001) and H l ne Cixous's The Book of Promethea (Nebraska 1991).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49953074118929,"sku":"CIN2070385019G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/2070385019.jpg?v=1751094762"},{"product_id":"fille-du-gobernator-book-paule-constant-9782070400799","title":"Fille Du Gobernator","description":"\u003ci\u003eThe Governor's Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e is an extraordinary tale of innocence adrift in a monstrous world. Set just after World War I in the French penal colony in Cayenne, French Guiana, it is the story of Chretienne, the seven-year-old daughter of the colony's governor and his obsessively devout wife, whom the convicts acidly call the Mother of God. \u003cp\u003eChretienne's disarmingly clear view of the adults with whom she lives--her pious parents and the notorious convicts in their charge--is both hilarious and harrowing. Her parents, driven by their desire for sainthood, subject Chretienne and the prisoners alike to inhuman rigors and coldness. Denied it by her family, the child finds human contact among the convicts, especially the Chinese murderer Tang. Pervading all is the grotesque yet fascinating atmosphere of the penal colony and its colonial setting--an atmosphere that we discover through the alert, inquisitive consciousness of a young girl. Constant's portrayal of Chretienne and her frightening life in the penal colony is unforgettable--the work of a major literary, and satiric, talent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Governor's Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the most acclaimed French novels of recent years.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50402627780881,"sku":"CIN2070400794G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/2070400794.jpg?v=1750772775"},{"product_id":"trading-secrets-book-paule-constant-9780803264045","title":"Trading Secrets","description":"Winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1998, this book is the work of one of France's most celebrated and interesting novelists writing at the height of her powers. It is fiction that leads readers through fascinating chambers of life where autobiography is constantly reimagined. A darkly comic novel about four women aging less-than-gracefully, Trading Secrets takes us to an academic conference in Kansas where, in an encounter between Aurore, a French woman, and her American counterpart, Gloria, the differences between their two cultures become sharply apparent. The result is a bitingly funny portrait of painfully complex, psychologically damaged individuals, all of whom have been, in some sense, \"colonized.\" The novel also offers an incisive picture of a French posture toward things American, from race relations to feminism to academia. As Paule Constant herself has said: \"C'est un livre en miroir.\" The book is a mirror, both in how its characters reflect one another and in what it shows us of ourselves and our world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007461130513,"sku":"NIN9780803264045","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51327730450705,"sku":"CIN0803264046VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0803264046.jpg?v=1764162342"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-paule-constant.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}